El Corte Inglés €4.9 billion financial restructuring

Overview:

• El Corte Inglés—the world’s third-largest department store chain by sales—restructured €4.9 billion of net debt with its lending banks as the family-owned group weathered the sharp fall in profits in its recession-hit Spanish homeland.
• The department store hired Morgan Stanley to advise it on extending the maturities of its debts.
• Banks that are among the largest lenders to the company include Banco Santander, BBVA and La Caixa.
• El Corte Inglés has 81 department stores in Spain and two in Portugal, and is run by its 77-year-old chairman, Isidoro Álvarez.

Adam Majeed - Regional editor